| 释义 |
▪ I. flibbertigibbet, n.|ˈflɪbətɪˈdʒɪbɪt|
Forms: 6 flibbergib(be, flybbergybe, 7 flibber de' Jibb, 6–7 flebergebet, -gebit, -gibet, 6 flibber-gibbet, 7 fliberdigib(b)et, fliberdegibek, 9 flibberty-, flipperty-gibbet, 7– flibbertigibbet.
[App. an onomatopœic representation of unmeaning chatter. The earliest form in our quots., flibbergib, is prob. the original; the later expansions are of a kind commonly met with in imitative words. The ending may be due to association with gibbet.]
1. A chattering or gossiping person; a flighty or frivolous woman.
1549Latimer 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI, D v, These..flybbergybes an other daye shall come & clawe you by the backe and say [etc.]. 1611Cotgr., Coquette, a pratling, or proud gossip; a titifill, a flebergebit. 1640Brome Sparagus Gard. i. iv, Good Mrs. Flibber de' Jibb with the French fly-flap o' your coxecombe. 1892Travers Mona Maclean I. 6 You..are less of a flibbertigibbet than the world takes you to be.
2.
†a. The name of a devil or fiend. Obs.
1603Harsnet Pop. Impost. x. 49 Frateretto, Fliberdigibbet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto were foure deuils of the round, or Morrice. 1605Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 120 The foule Flibbertigibbet..hurts the poore Creature of earth.
b. A person resembling the character so nicknamed in Scott's Kenilworth; an impish-looking, mischievous, and flighty urchin; a person of grotesque appearance and restless manners.
[1821Scott Kenilw. x, Dickie Sludge, or Flibbertigibbet, as he called the boy.] 1826H. N. Coleridge West Indies 292 What with her dishevelled hair and young black Flibbertigibbet by her side, she looked like a real witch. 1861F. Metcalfe Oxonian in Icel. 305 A white-haired flibbertigibbet of a boy. 1878Stevenson Inland Voy. 63 He was a lean, nervous flibbertigibbet of a man.
Hence ˈflibberty-ˈgibberty a., flighty, frivolous, senseless.
1879L. B. Walford Cousins II. 146 The gentle, serious Jane was taken with the flibberty-gibberty fellow. 1888in Berksh. Gloss.
▪ II. ˈflibbertiˌgibbet, v.
[f. flibbertigibbet n.]
intr. To play the flibbertigibbet; to gad about frivolously.
1921Galsworthy To Let i. i, His daughter would flibberty-gibbet all over the place like most young women since the War. |